Live - NCL Prima - 06/23-07/04/2024 - Southampton, Belgium, Amsterdam, Norway and Iceland - Is it more beautiful than Alaska?

[Seas2mountains]

I have absolutely loved reading the many Live reviews that keep coming in this forum. Thank you to all who are contributing. I will make an attempt to give back with mostly live information from our experience with photos. However, if the live review gets to be too much, 

 

My husband and I will be traveling on this adventure.  We both have been to Europe but it has been many, many years since we have been there with the exception of a business trip to London about 10 years ago and a cruise in the Mediterranean about 12 years ago .  I lived in Germany and served in Bosnia while in the Army. This meant that I was able to travel to many European locations including Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and the UK but this was about 25+ years ago.  My husband was a pilot in the Air Force and he flew to many locations in Europe. We are super excited to see these locations on this itinerary together. The weather is looking fairly decent for the first few days of the cruise. 

 

I read some comments on a recent live review about whether Norway is more beautiful than Alaska. My last live review was on the Spirit for a B2B in Alaska last June/July. I'll do my best to include photos of Norway so you can decide.

 

[Seas2mountains]

Here is our itinerary.

 

[Seas2mountains]

Today is travel day!  We are mostly packed and have a few last minute errands to run before we leave to catch our night flight to London. We will stay in Southampton for 3 nights before embarking on the Prima on Sunday.

 

I created a 20 page document with photos and fun facts for our 9 year old granddaughter to follow along on our cruise to include information about each country and port locations. She recently cruised with us on the Breakaway last month with her auntie (our daughter) and auntie's boyfriend. This was our granddaughter's fourth cruise with us and she thinks it is very "rude" of us to go on another cruise without her. 

 

My husband asked for a copy of the 20 page document so he would know where we are going and what we are doing! Ha ha! 

[TYTY]

27 minutes ago, Seas2mountains said:

Here is our itinerary.

 

I'm so jealous....I had this itinerary booked for 2020.  Have a great time!

[Seas2mountains]

Here is the weather forecast for Southampton (Thursday-Sunday), Bruges (Monday), and Amsterdam (Tuesday). 
 

Looks perfect or almost perfect to me.

 

Warm clothes are packed for Norway and Iceland where it will be much colder. 

[cruiseny4life]

WHOA!!! You've just picked up my spirits. I was looking at the end date of all the lives, noticing they're all ending next week. And then, BOOM!!! Here you are to bring us exceptional photos from the almost top of the world. 

 

🎶Ba da ba ba ba, I'm lovin' it!🎶

 

As for this Alaska vs. Norway silliness on the other threads (I saw it too and just couldn't)....y'all, I can't tell you what place in the world is more beautiful. There's so many dimensions to beauty. I've got a long list of most beautiful places in the world that I've been to! I just hope I can someday see the fjords of Norway with my own two eyes.

 

Anyway! Enjoy the trip. 

[Buckeye10640]

I will be following your review and would love to hear your thoughts on Prima, as well as these wonderful locations. I have been looking at this itinerary for awhile now but I am on the fence regarding this ship.

[mking8288]

Following - just take pictures & post, write as you can - you are on vacation.  Have a wonderful, great and relaxing 12 days / 11 nights cruise ... shorex plans booked and/or mixing it up with DIY walking tours, there is no much to see & do at each of the ports.  DW and I thinking of northern Europe including Norway for, perhaps 2026 - possibly an extended land-stay in Iceland, going to wait-n-see.  

 

P.S.  Thank you to both hubby & your services.  Happy, safe and healthy travel - bon voyage ! 

[Seas2mountains]

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

WHOA!!! You've just picked up my spirits. I was looking at the end date of all the lives, noticing they're all ending next week. And then, BOOM!!! Here you are to bring us exceptional photos from the almost top of the world. 

 

🎶Ba da ba ba ba, I'm lovin' it!🎶

 

As for this Alaska vs. Norway silliness on the other threads (I saw it too and just couldn't)....y'all, I can't tell you what place in the world is more beautiful. There's so many dimensions to beauty. I've got a long list of most beautiful places in the world that I've been to! I just hope I can someday see the fjords of Norway with my own two eyes.

 

Anyway! Enjoy the trip. 

Thank you so much! I get so hooked on the Live reviews that I know how boring it is when they end. 
 

I have been on a boat (not a cruise ship) in the Norwegian fjords and I think the height of the mountains on both sides and the color of the water makes it one of the most  beautiful places in the world.  
 

I hope you will get to see the Norwegian fjords in person someday, too. 

[Seas2mountains]

2 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

I will be following your review and would love to hear your thoughts on Prima, as well as these wonderful locations. I have been looking at this itinerary for awhile now but I am on the fence regarding this ship.

This will be our first time on the Prima. I’ll do my best to share more about our experience on the ship along with the itinerary. Feel free to ask any questions. 

[Seas2mountains]

2 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Following - just take pictures & post, write as you can - you are on vacation.  Have a wonderful, great and relaxing 12 days / 11 nights cruise ... shorex plans booked and/or mixing it up with DIY walking tours, there is no much to see & do at each of the ports.  DW and I thinking of northern Europe including Norway for, perhaps 2026 - possibly an extended land-stay in Iceland, going to wait-n-see.  

 

P.S.  Thank you to both hubby & your services.  Happy, safe and healthy travel - bon voyage ! 

Thank you! Your recent wonderful live review on the Prima was really helpful and inspired me to do this one to try to share some photos and our experience. Feel free to add your own Prima comments at any time. 
 

I hope you will do a live review on Cunard. 

[kattybiz]

Very excited to follow this....we're doing the same cruise next year!   Hope you have a wonderful time!

[Seas2mountains]

3 hours ago, TYTY said:

I'm so jealous....I had this itinerary booked for 2020.  Have a great time!

Thank you! I hope you will be able to go on this itinerary in the future. 

[complawyer]

while i hope you have a wonderful cruise, i believe your question is entirely subjective, as they say "beauty is in  the eyes of the beholder" here, you are trying compare an entire country to one of the 50 states. really kind of hard to choose

[Seas2mountains]

1 hour ago, kattybiz said:

Very excited to follow this....we're doing the same cruise next year!   Hope you have a wonderful time!

Thank you! Hope you have a great cruise next year. Thank you for following along. 

[Seas2mountains]

6 minutes ago, complawyer said:

while i hope you have a wonderful cruise, i believe your question is entirely subjective, as they say "beauty is in  the eyes of the beholder" here, you are trying compare an entire country to one of the 50 states. really kind of hard to choose

Thank you! At the end of the cruise, I expect to say that both are beautiful for different reasons.it is difficult to see some areas of Alaska without access to a plane or helicopter. 

 

It is such a personal and subjective answer as you pointed out. 

[Seas2mountains]

We each checked one large suitcase which was so easy to check as there were no lines. My suitcase is 16 pounds heavier than it was for a 7 day warm weather cruise on Breakaway almost a month ago. I packed a lot of layers for Iceland and more toiletries for the additional week of travel. My husband’s suitcase is 5 pounds heavier. 
 

My husband tries to help me with my bag since he is a wonderful husband but I try to be Army tough by handling it myself and don’t want him to deal with the consequences of my over packing issues. 
 

As the day and time were off peak for travel, there was hardly a line in TSA Pre check. 
 

We are waiting in an airline lounge as we got here earlier than we normally do for flights. 
 

First drinks were a white blend for my husband and a red blend for me. 

[Seas2mountains]

It was a busy day doing last minute errands, tasks and packing.  I had some eggs for breakfast but skipped lunch as I wasn’t hungry. 
 

The Airline lounge has plenty of hot and cold food options. I picked chicken piccata, mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini. The chicken was delicious and the zucchini tasted fresh and was perfectly prepared. 

My husband got a Chipotle chicken sandwich with cheese on the side. He really likes cheese. He said it was good.

[Seas2mountains]

Robots in airline lounge to move dirty dishes. 

[odie1024]

Have a wonderful trip, will be doing this trip in August 2025. When cruise is over will spend extra night in Iceland (I was there last November with the girls and so enjoyed the beauty) then BF and I fly to Denmark, see Sweden then back to Norway for more time to explore the beautiful country. Figured I would not get back that way as I have other things to see and Copenhagen is only a 3 hour flight from Reykjavik so why not.

 

Will be sailing the Prima for the first time in January from NYC to Galveston so look forward to your thoughts about this ship. Will be looking for ideas for the ports.

 

Have fun! 

[Ellis1138]

Thanks for doing the live thread! I'll be on the same sailing, but won't have good access or the time to do a live. 

[Seas2mountains]

Our flight is delayed slightly but is expected to make up time flying over the pond. We are flying a day earlier than planned and at a later time to take advantage of an upgrade option.
 

We should be taking off soon. 

[ontheweb]

Looking forward to your review. We did this itinerary on the Prima last summer and actually celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary on the sea day between Norway and Iceland. We also flew in a day early and spent a day in London. The weather was unfortunately miserable that day, so we ended up just spending a very long time in the British Museum.

 

Like all the Prima cruises last summer, we missed Akureryi. From reading some previous posts, it seems the dock is now complete so you should get there unless the weather makes it a problem. Especially looking forward to hearing about that port. Our cruise also missed the Belgium stop because of an extremely low tide. We did, however, get to Brugge earlier this year on a river cruise.

 

Wishing you a great cruise. Despite booking for itinerary and missing 2 ports, we still loved this cruise and the Prima.

[Seas2mountains]

We are in London. The flight was only a few minutes late. It was a peaceful and quiet flight. I got about an hour of sleep and feel fine now while my husband got about 3 hours of sleep. 
 

It was about a 12 minute walk using escalators and walkways to get from the plane to passport control automated scanners. The machine scanned our passports and did facial recognition and then the gate opened.  Our bags were ready about 10 minutes later and we walked out the exit in terminal 2 with no customs checks. 

[dexddd]

Have a great time.